Two drug dealers whose crimes earned them nearly £20,000 failed to turn up for a court hearing designed to strip them of their illegal profits.

An earlier hearing at Carlisle Crown Court was told how Joshua David Hutton, 24, had allowed his home in the city's South Street, off Botchergate, to be used as what police said was a heroin dealer's "warehouse".

A judge has now ruled he raked in £12,000 from his crimes.

His co-defendant Harry John Nicholson, 45, whose fingerprints were found on some of the drug packaging in Hutton’s house, was found to have benefited by £6,200.

As the Proceeds of Crime hearing got underway at the city’s crown court, Judge Peter Hughes QC was told that both defendants had refused to leave their respective prisons and come to court.

Lawyers said neither man had sufficient assets to clear the amount of benefit they had achieved through the drug dealing operation.

Hutton's available assets were assessed to be £6,820, while the figure available from Nicholson was just £316.

If Nicholson fails to hand over the cash to the authorities, he will face an extra 28 days in jail. Hutton spend an extra four months in jail if he fails to pay up.

The men's drug supply operation came to light after police saw a Peugeot in a car park behind St George's United Reformed Church, West Walls, on March 1 last year, an earlier hearing was told.

Denise Fitzpatrick, prosecuting, said Nicholson was behind the wheel, while Hutton was in the front passenger seat, under which two wraps of heroin were recovered.

At Hutton's home police found a "heroin dealer's warehouse", which included heroin worth £4,400, weighing scales and neatly-bundled bank notes totaling £5,500.

Mark Shepherd, for Hutton, said he had been a heroin addict following "the most difficult of upbringings".

"Regrettably he has spiralled further and further into the dark world of class A drugs," said Mr Shepherd.

"That is where he found himself in March this year."

But he had since become a "reformed character", and was clean of drugs, fit and healthy.

Hutton, who admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply, was jailed for 30 months by Recorder Julie Clemitson. Nicholson, who admitted being concerned in its supply, received an immediate 27-month term.